Big game season's topic of meeting

Few changes are expected for Boundary County’s 2010 big game season, which will be discussed from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25, at the Boundary County Extension Office in Bonners Ferry.

Proposed mountain lion, black beer, deer, wolf and elk seasons will be discussed by regional wildlife biologist Wayne Wakkinen with Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

Wakkinen also will talk about last year’s hunting season, including what fish and game officials saw at check stations and in winter helicopter surveys of elk in Coeur d’Alene and St. Joe drainages.

As for Boundary County, last year’s elk season was surprisingly good, he said. The deer season was down.

“The last two winters have been hard on white-tails,” Wakkinen said.

Exceptional amounts of snowfall result in high mortality of adult deer and a loss in fawns come spring.

“We lost a lot of elk calves and deer fawns in the cold spring of 2008,” he said.

As for the 2010 season, Wakkinen expects game to be plentiful given this year’s mild winter.

“It’s been good for game. There’s a lot of open country, which will probably mean a low winter mortality because it makes it harder for predators to key on animals when they’re spread out.”

He expects the local wolf season to be largely unchanged. The season open on Oct. 1, 2009, and will run through March 31, 2010. This year’s limit is 30. So far, 16 have been taken.